Medical Residents Need More Rest to Increase Safety

In a report released this past Tuesday by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a new rule was implemented, allowing doctors-in-training to take an undisturbed five-hour break to rest after the first 16 hours of a 30 hour shift. A regulation implemented five years ago by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education put a cap on the number of hours these new doctors, allowing a maximum of 80 hours to be worked per week, with a maximum shift of 30 hours. Before this cap was enforced, some residents were working a 110 hour work week, on average. In a government requested study by the IOM, it was found that hospitals often demand longer shifts and longer work weeks, disregarding the limits put on medical residents’ work hours. Also, the fact that if a patient is in need of medical attention, a doctor can not just leave when their shift is over, tacking on additional hours to their already lengthy days. These extended work hours cause exhaustion in these young doctors, which leads to medical errors. In a separate study done in this field, it was found that residents make more mistakes during longer shifts. Still, it is hardly possible to determine if the time caps had any effect on the safety of patients, since it is reliant on so many components.

The Institute of Medicine is struggling to come up with a way to balance the education of these resident doctors and the safety of the patients they are treating, allowing them enough time to learn their specialty while not depriving them of much needed sleep. These young doctors, straight out of med school, work as residents for three to seven years, learning and training to be the best they can in their chosen area of medicine. In order to reduce the number of errors made by medical residents, the IOM suggests that more practiced physicians supervise the young doctors them more closely and that hospitals increase the number of involuntary days off and hours off between lengthy shifts. Also, the Institute recommends that a longer overlap of residents’ shifts, which would make it easier to pass patients off to the next doctor.

Any mistake made by a doctor or hospital, whether it be due to lack of sleep or lack of care, is not the fault of the patient. If you or a loved one has medical malpractice questions in New York, please contact the malpractice lawyers of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, serving clients in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County.

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